282 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the 



places. It is curiously local in its habits and will haunt 

 one grass-plain or patch of ekra in great numbers, yet will 

 not be found at all in the adjoining patch, although to human 

 eyes they appear much the same. 



I have taken altogether thirty eggs, of course many unblow- 

 able, and find that four is invariably the full complement. 

 I have never seen less than four hard-set and have never 

 found five. 



The nests were all much the same as that first described, 

 and it was very noticeable that in the majority of instances 

 very dark material was used. In a few, however, the nest was 

 composed chiefly of stuff that looked like cocoanut-fibre, and 

 was, I believe, the fibrous outer part of ekra-roots ; this was 

 light yellow in colour. In shape externally the nest merely 

 fits the place in which it is built, but the inner cup seems 

 always to be very neat and well finished, averaging some 

 two inches in diameter and being a very regular semi- 

 sphere. 



When trying to find the nest by watching the birds, I was 

 doomed to many disappointments, as they kept dodging into 

 holes and crannies in the roots, apparently in search of food, 

 and constant inspections of these places resulted in nothing. 



The eggs are the most brilliantly coloured of all those of 

 the Saxicolhue , a uniform bright blue, even brighter than 

 in the Accentors. In only one clutch have there been any 

 markings : even in this two eggs are unmarked ; one has a 

 lew very faint specks and spots of pale rufous, forming 

 a faint ring round the larger end, and only the fourth has 

 the same markings at all defined. In this, however, there 

 is a fairly well-marked ring of tiny rufous blotches and 

 freckles about *15 inch wide, and it looks like a very 

 brightly coloured, but faintly marked, egg of Pratincola 

 maura. Curiously enough, though I have been constantly 

 on the look-out for such markings, this was the last clutch 

 of all obtained. 



The texture is very fine and compact, and the shell 

 exceedingly stout for so tiny an egg. The surface has a 

 slight gloss. 



